How Should I Face Racism Among My Childhood Friends?

How Should I Face Racism Among My Childhood Friends?

Q. My hometown (St. Cloud, Minn.) is breaking my heart. The place where I grew up has been in the news lately as the poster child for white supremacist radicalization in response to a growing Somali community. I see people I spent my childhood with joining anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant groups, and I see 40-year friendships ending because of it. I feel far away, and the gulf seems too wide to even hear across. How can I help? — Pamela Romanowsky, Brooklyn, N.Y.

New Illinois Law Requires LGBT History To Be Taught In Schools

New Illinois Law Requires LGBT History To Be Taught In Schools

Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law legislation that requires all state-recognized public schools to include in their curriculum the study of historic contributions that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have made for the state and the country.

The law mandates that “Each public school district and state-recognized, non-public school shall, subject to appropriations for that purpose, receive a per pupil grant for the purchase of secular and non-discriminatory textbooks.” The state’s Board of Education will publish an annual list of “approved textbooks.”

One of the main supporters of the bill, State Sen. Heather Steans (D), said the reasonfor the bill is because “one of the best ways to overcome intolerance is through education and exposure to different people and viewpoints.”

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, one of the highest ranking Mexican American Catholic leaders in the country, was left in shock on Saturday when he heard about the mass shooting in El Paso that killed at least 22 people in his state. Garcia-Siller said there was “no justifiable explanation for such scenes of horror.”

But what was clear to the archbishop, who recently supported migrants and asylum seekers crossing the southern border, was that President Trump’s “invasion” rhetoric against Hispanics, language echoed in a manifesto police believe was posted by the alleged El Paso gunman, helped create a climate that led to the tragedy.

The 62-year-old archbishop said on Twitter this week that Trump — a very weak and “poor man” — had caused “Too much damage already” and that the president’s rhetoric had “destroyed” people’s lives. Pleading for gun control so that more lives would not be “wasted in vain” after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Garcia-Siller had another request for Trump.

American Flag Stands for Freedom, Not Racism

American Flag Stands for Freedom, Not Racism

A new Gallup poll shines a spotlight on the deep political divide in America and surely points to what the upcoming presidential election will be about

Gallup asked, “How proud are you to be an American?”
Seventy-six percent of Republicans said “extremely proud” compared with 22 percent of Democrats.
Broken down by age, 63% of those over 65 said “extremely proud,” and only 24% of those 18 to 29.
This tells us something about Nike’s recent move to pull its Betsy Ross flag sneakers from the marketplace, having taken guidance from its ex-football star anti-hero, now-Nike corporate spokesman, Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick claims that America’s first flag is associated with the era of slavery Analysts say, according to the Wall Street Journal, that Nike’s “core customer base … starts with American males in their early teens.” And, “80% of the sneaker industry’s most committed enthusiasts are under the age of 35.Estimates are that Kaepernick’s net worth is $20 million, and his Nike deal will add millions of dollars a year. At age 31, it seems that Kaepernick is not doing badly in the USA. Does this mean he shouldn’t speak out if he sees things that are wrong? Of course not. The issue is spin.

‘Shame and humiliation’: Aceh’s Islamic law violates human rights

Punishments under Sharia are rooted in cultural traditions and few are willing to speak publicly against it.

Hendra, an academic in Indonesia’s semi-autonomous region of Aceh, vaguely remembers the first time he saw a public caning take place in his 20s. It was years ago and it didn’t faze him much.

The 35-year-old cannot even remember what the people were accused of – just that they were taken to a public square at a local mosque and flogged with a rattan cane in front of a crowd of onlookers.

But in recent years, Hendra, a lecturer in communications at Ar-Raniry University in Banda Aceh, has started to feel differently.

Now he avoids public canings. “I always think, ‘Imagine if that was a member of my family’,” he told Al Jazeera. “Do these people really deserve this?”

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is one of Indonesia’s most religiously conservative areas, and is the only part of the archipelago to impose penalties on its residents under Islamic law.

Once one of the most powerful Islamic sultanates in Southeast Asia, the area had long used an informal kind of Islamic law mixed with local laws, known as “hukum adat”. But the legislation was enhanced when Aceh’s long-running separatist conflict ended in 2005. The laws have been gradually expanded to more offences, most recently in 2014.

“Sharia police monitor public behaviour and enforce the rules, including in relation to the clothing women choose to wear,” Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty Indonesia, told Al Jazeera.

“People can be subjected to public canings for a range of offences, including gay sex, which carries a penalty of up to 100 lashes, sex before or outside marriage, gambling and the sale and consumption of alcohol.”

The practice had already caused shock among the international community, and after Brunei attracted global condemnation over its plan to step up punishments under Islamic law, attention also turned to Aceh.

Racism has no place in American politics,” Buttigieg tells attendee at Iowa event

Racism has no place in American politics,” Buttigieg tells attendee at Iowa event

2020 Democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg told a man at an event in Iowa that “racism has no place in American politics

after the man said he should “just tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crimes In June, a white police officer shot and killed a black man in South Bend in June, and Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, has been dealing with the fallout The man was booed by the crowd at the Carroll County, Iowa, barbecue after the comment. Buttigieg said I think that racism is not going to help but the man continued No, just stop committing crimes Has nothing to do with race The fact that a black person is four times as likely as a white person to be incarcerated for the exact same crime is evidence of systemic racism Buttigieg answered It is evidence of systemic racism and with all due respect sir, racism makes it harder for good police officers to do their job too It is a smear on law enforcement.

A Facebook group for border agents was rife with racism and sexism. Now DHS is investigating

A Facebook group for border agents was rife with racism and sexism. Now DHS is investigating

Federal officials are investigating whether agents participated in a private Facebook group for Border Patrol employees that hosted racist, sexist and sexually violent memes about immigrants and officials such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Matthew Klein, an assistant commissioner at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, called the Facebook group’s posts “disturbing” and said the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, of which CBP is a part, began an investigation after a report by the investigative site ProPublica The posts on the private group, which says it is for current and former Border Patrol agents, included caustic remarks about the deaths of migrants, sexually explicit images edited to include images of Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and xenophobic asides and comments, according to ProPublica The Washington Post was not able to confirm the existence of the group, called “I’m 10-15,” after the law enforcement code for “aliens in custody.” The private group is not visible to people who are not members Where Old Patrol meets New Patrol,” the group described itself, according to images ProPublica shared. “We are family, first and foremost. This is where the Green line starts, with us.

Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism

Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism

White people should not need to be reminded that racial justice entails more than celebrating the culture and achievements of black people

It also requires white people to take up the work of naming and dismantling the structural sin of racism Yet as the multicultural educator Robin DiAngelo points out in her recent book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, many white people fail even to recognize racism for what it really is. Instead, we deal with an effigy, one that keeps whites comfortable and racially dominant DiAngelo is one of the country’s foremost experts in whiteness studies. A scholar, lecturer, consultant and trainer on issues of social and racial justice for over 20 years, DiAngelo holds a doctorate in multicultural education from the University of Washington and gave up tenure to lead racial education workshops full time. Using anecdotes from her workshops and reflecting on her own racism, DiAngelo, who is white, deftly organizes White Fragility as a practical tool for those willing to take on their own misunderstandings and ignorance of racism she notes, engage with a strawman of racism, seeing it as individual actions taken by bad people to intentionally hurt others. In reality, racism is a complex

“Race and the legacy of racism” in St. Petersburg

“Race and the legacy of racism” in St. Petersburg

On Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club hosted a discussion about race and the legacy of racism in the city. Topics like reparations, gentrification and the racist symbolism of St. Petersburg’s segregated green benches came up. It was held at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, which used to exclude African-Americans.

WMNF News interviewed Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch about race in the history of St. Pete.

“It’s complex. And we’re not immune from the legacy of racism and discrimination. Just like every other city in the country, and especially cities in the south. So this conversation today is vitally important. You can see it’s a sold out room. That’s encouraging to see. But I think in this community we are ready to embrace that discussion more fully.

Ottawa unveils anti-racism initiative

Ottawa unveils anti-racism initiative

The federal government has unveiled a multi-million-dollar initiative to fight racism in Canada.

Federal Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriquez made the announcement Tuesday, saying $45 million will be spent over the next three years to fight systemic discrimination through community programs, public education campaigns and combating hate on line.

Under the plan, the federal government is setting up a secretariat that Rodriquez says will tackle “systemic racism in all ways it manifests itself in our laws, programs and services.”

The initiative includes funding for community groups for job-skills training, youth mentoring, legal services and protections against hate speech abd a national public awareness and education campaign.

The initiative comes more than a year after the House of Commons heritage committee released the results of its study of systemic racism and religious discrimination following a political firestorm resulting from an anti-Islamophobia motion, M-103, brought forward by the Liberal government in March 2017.